Torrance City Council meetings will now allow remote participation

Torrance will allow remote participation during all City Council meetings, beginning on July 14 and running until July 2030 – something the city was previously not on board with.

But following the passage of state Senate Bill 707, which amended the Ralph M. Brown Act to require all legislative bodies allow "members of the public to attend via a two-way telephonic service or a two-way audiovisual platform," the city will now have to comply.

The city's initial opposition was linked to increased costs to the city.

"Committee Member Kaji expressed strong opposition to SB 707, which modifies Brown Act requirements and would mandate hybrid meetings," says the April 14, 2025, State Legislative Advocacy Committee minutes. "He noted this could impose substantial technological costs on cities."

There will be a one-time cost of $16,210 and an annual cost of $700, according to a June 23 city staff report written by Torrance City Attorney Patrick Sullivan.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Torrance, like many other cities, utilized remote participation, but the experience was labor-intensive and presented many unexpected technological challenges, said Carlos Huizar, management associate in the city manager's office.

In contrast to the efforts taken during the state of emergency in 2020, however, the city has had more time to prepare.

"The City of Torrance has been working collaboratively across multiple departments, Huizar said, "including the City Clerk's, City Attorney's, and City Manager's Offices, as well as Information Technology and our Communications team-to prepare for compliance with SB 707."

Beginning July 14, the city will utilize Zoom meetings for all City Council open session meetings. Instructions on how to use the platform will be on the July 14 City Council meeting agenda once it is released.

Additional components of SB 707 will require the city to adopt a disruption policy, should there be any technical difficulties, in addition to an outreach program to encourage participation from underrepresented groups. The goal of the bill is to "increase public engagement with local government and modernize the Ralph M. Brown Act."

Should there be any disruption to the two-way telephonic and audiovisual platform, the City Council will be required to go into a recess until the issue has been resolved or one hour has passed – whichever occurs first.

If the disruption is not able to be resolved following due diligence by the council and city staff, the meeting may resume, but it must be recorded in the meeting minutes that the council went into recess because of technological disruption for an hour and was not able to resolve the issue.

"While the City did not submit a letter of support for SB 707 due to the additional staffing and costs required to implement a compliant technology solution," Huizar said, "we are fully committed to providing this platform to help the public seamlessly engage with the City Council moving forward."

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This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 8:27 PM.